Changing starting units - limitations

[Bob Dalton]

Being an experienced CIV modder I thought I would pass on what I have learned about changing starting units in Civ VI for what its worth.

When attempting to edit the ERAS.XML file in the Base\Assets\Gameplay\Data directory to change starting units the only acceptable parameters at this time are:

"Unit" TEXT NOT NULL,
"Era" TEXT NOT NULL,
"District" TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT "DISTRICT_CITY_CENTER",
"Quantity" INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
"NotStartTile" BOOLEAN NOT NULL CHECK (NotStartTile IN (0,1)) DEFAULT 0,
"OnDistrictCreated" BOOLEAN NOT NULL CHECK (OnDistrictCreated IN (0,1)) DEFAULT 0,
"AiOnly" BOOLEAN NOT NULL CHECK (AiOnly IN (0,1)) DEFAULT 0,
"MinDifficulty" TEXT,
"DifficultyDelta" REAL NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,

This comes from the 01_GameplaySchema.sql file located in the Base\Assets\Gameplay\Data\Schema directory.

FYI the SQL schema basically builds a table called "MajorStartingUnits" which contains reference only information on starting units from information contained in the ERAS.XML file.

There is no provided parameter at present that I could find that will allow a unit to be assigned only to the human player. At present you have only two choices:

1. AI players get a unit but the human player doesn't
or
2. Everyone gets the same unit.

The game authors really need to consider altering the "AIOnly" parameter to allow assignment of a unit just to a human or create another parameter specifically just for that purpose.

Bob Dalton

 

[Mynex]

Yea, I ran into this already. I was trying to tweak the starting units for just the player and... it's all or nothing. Well, at least for the major civs... If you specify additional units there, the minor civs don't get them... so that's something at least.

I'm going to try going through the tech and civics tree to see if I can do something there. I'm not holding out much hope though.

 

[wotan321]

Thank-you, this information is very helpful.

 

[Golan v]

I enterd my self to change alot on the units options in thos files including changing
Difficulty level for AI and it works !
I changed alot of options upgrdes unit and so on..

 

[Bob Dalton]

Here is an example of modifying the startup units.

In this case I wanted a bit faster start to the my Ancient Era game so I modified the ERA.XML file section to show the following:

<Row Era="ERA_ANCIENT" Unit="UNIT_SETTLER" Quantity="2"/>
<Row Era="ERA_ANCIENT" Unit="UNIT_WARRIOR" NotStartTile="true"/>
<Row Era="ERA_ANCIENT" Unit="UNIT_BUILDER" Quantity="2" OnDistrictCreated="true"/>
<Row Era="ERA_ANCIENT" Unit="UNIT_SCOUT" NotStartTile="true" Quantity="1"/>

This will provide me, and ALL OTHER PLAYERS, with two unit settlers, a single warrior and a single scout. In addition when each of these settlers starts its city then that city will receive a single free builder unit up to but not exceeding the amount specified in the "Quantity=" parameter for "UNIT_BUILDER" - in this case 2.

FYI the OnDistrictCreated=" parameter basically means in this case a city, and that you won't get that free unit until the city is established. From testing I was able to determine that the game keeps track of the total number of free builders it gives you so that it does not exceed the amount stated in the "Quantity=" parameter for that unit.

Bob

 

[CowsMooingNSuch]

In theory there is a way to do it. You could edit the max prophets to 1, give the civ you want the leader abillity that automatically gives you the last prophet, and edit that leader abillity to also give other units. Sorry i can’t go into more specific detail, i am posting from mobile so i don’t have the files in front of me

 

[raen]

For starting units use https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/really-advanced-setup-lite.610454/

I have it integrated with my mod.